Antifriction side bearing.



E. S. WOODS, DECD.

A. a. WELCH, EXECUTOR.

ANTIFRICTION SIDE BEARING. APPLICATION man DEC.26. 1912.

1,1 62,428. Patented Nov. 30, 1915.

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* UNITED ST TES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWIN S. WOODS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS; ALBERT G. WELCH, EXEGUTOR OF SAID WOODS, DECEASED, ASSIGNOR TO ALBERT G. WELCH, TRUSTEE.

ANTIFR-ICTION SIDE BEARING.

To. all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN S. VVooos, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Antifriction Side Bea-rings; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to an improvement in side bearings and consists of the matters hereinafter described and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

The side bearing is of that general type described in an application filed by the applicant and one Arnold A. Weigel,on the 26th day of December, 1912, Serial No. 738,514, and which includes a plurality of closely spaced, flat sided, antifriction elements. It is designed particularly for use where the relative movement between the body and truck bolsters is comparatively small, requiring but a limited oscillatory movement of the antifriction elements and where very heavy loads are to be transmitted, as in the case of engine tenders.

In the drawings :-Figure 1 is a view representing a longitudinal central section through the side bearing inthe plane indicated by the line 1-1 of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of .the same with the wearplate, which -closes the top ofthe casing, re moved. Fig. 3 is a view representing a transverse vertical section through the hearing in a plane indicated by the line 33 of Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawings, 10 indicates the casing which is an oblong, substantially rectangular shell,open top and bot= tom and havingside walls 11, 11 and end walls 12, 12. The casing is attached to the body bolster 13 in a familiar manner. The open top of the casing is closed by a wearplate 1 1 which rests upon horizontal flanges 15, 15 that are spaced below the top of the casing a distance equal to the thickness of the wear-plate and extend outwardly from the end walls 12, 12 of the casing. The horizontal flanges 15, 15 are provided 'at their ends withupright marginal flanges 16,

Specification of Letters Patent.

gagement with the wear-plate. ,walls 12 of the casing are inclined outwardly Patented Nov. 30, 1915.

Application filed December 26, 1912. Serial No. 738,507.

16 which are bent over against the beveled ends of the wear-plate to hold it in place in a familiar manner. The upper parts of the side walls of the casing are offset out- Wardly from the planes of the lower parts thereof, to form longitudinally extending shoulders 17, 17 which constitute rails for the support of a plurality of antifriction elements 18. Each of the antifriction elements 18 is a segment of a cylinder and as shown there are five of such antifriction elements. Each antifriction element has flattened sides 18, 18 and rounded top and bottom bearingsurfaces 18", 18". Said antifriction elements are assembled in the carriage so that their flattened sides are closely adjacent and are so arranged thatwhen transmitting load they will rock or oscillate in unison. While the sides of the antifriction elements are thus placed close together, they must not, when they have plane surfaces'as shown herein, be in contact, since they Wlll not then be capable of oscillatory movement as will readily be apparent to those familiar with the art. Each antifric tion element has a trunnion 19 projecting from each end face near its top and above its center of. gravity. The trunnions of each antifriction elementhave a common horizontal central axis which is located in the median plane of the antifriction elements. Each trunnion is wedge-shaped at the bottom, having oppositely inclined bottom bearing surfaces 19" which are adapted for engagement against the inclined edges 20, 20 of an associated V-shaped notch 20 formed in the rail 17. There are a plurality of such notches 20v in each rail, one for each antifriction element and they are longitudinally spaced apart so that when the trunnions of the several antifriction elements are engaged in their, respective notches, the fiat faces of the antifriction elements will be closely adjacentto each other as shown in the drawings. The rails 17 are placed sucha dis tance below the lower face of the wear-plate 14 as compared to the distance thatthe trunnions are spaced below the top bearing surfaces of the antifriction elements, that the trunnions will be lifted out of the notches before the upper bearing surfaces of the antifriction elements are brought into en- The end away from the space occupied by the antifriction elements, (see Fig. 1) so as to provide room for the oscillation of said elements, and act as stops to limit the oscillatory movement of the antifriction elements and thus determine the amplitude of their oscillation.

The operation of my improved side hearing is as follows: The bearing is shown with the parts in the position they occupy when the antifriction elements are transmitting load, the lower bearing surfaces of the antifriction elements being illustrated as in bearing engagement with the lower wearplate 22 attached to the truck-bolster. As the two bolsters move, the one with reference to the other, the antifriction elements oscillate to one side or the other depending upon the movement of said parts. WVhen the antifriction elements are released they drop by gravity until their trunnions come to bear in the respective grooves of the rails 17 and as the center of gravity of the antifriction elements are much below the axes of the trunnions, said antifriction elements swing pendulum-wise until they assume a vertical position.

By constructing the trunnions and their respective supporting notches with inclined bearing surfaces, a simple means is provided for preventing the antifriction elements from swinging in the casing and rattling when not transmitting load. In addition as the inclined bearing surfaces 19 of the trunnions meet in a knife-edge, when the friction elements are released and drop, if they should swing into vertical position without immediately assuming their normal positions in the casing, as will usually occur, the said knife-edges of the trunnions will strike one of the inclined edges of said notches and will slide down the same until they come to rest in the bottoms of said notches, being thus returned to their predetermined normal positions of rest.

In the embodiment of my invention illustrated herein, the antifriction element is shown in the form of the segment of a cylinder but apparently the invention is not limited to this specific form of antifriction element, it being possible to use instead thereof the section of a ball or other forms of oscillatory or rocking antifriction elements having like characteristics as described in the application hereinbefore referred to.

While I have referred to the sides of the antifriction elements as flat or flattened and have illustrated said antifriction elements in the drawings as having side faces which are plane surfaces, it is to be understood that said side faces are not necessarily plane surfaces and that the terms flat sided? and flattened sides, as used in the description and in the claims, are merely used as a convenient term for describing this type of antifriction element, which has been fully disclosed and various modifications of which have been described in Letters Patent No. 995,835, heretofore granted to the inventor herein on June 20th, 1911, in connection with an antifriction center bearing.

While in describing my invention I have referred to certain details of mechanical construction and arrangement it is to be understood that the invention is in no way limited thereto except as may be pointed out in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention 1. In a side bearing, in combination with a casing, provided with longitudinally extending supporting rails, and a plurality of closely spaced antifriction elements supported pendulum-wise from said rails, said antifriction elements each having a crosssection at right angles to its axis of oscillation approximating its section of load transmission.

2. In a side bearing, in combination with a casing, provided with longitudinally extending supporting rails, and a plurality of closely spaced antifriction elements supported pendulum-wise from said rails, the crosssection of each antifriction element taken at right angles to its axis of oscillation being greater in one direction than in the direction at right angles thereto.

3. In a side bearing, in combination with a casing, provided with longitudinally extending supporting rails, and a plurality of closely spaced antifriction elements each provided with trunnions adapted for supporting engagement with said rails, said trunnions being spaced above the centers of gravity of said antifriction elements, and the cross-section of each antifriction element taken at right angles to its axis of oscillation approximating its section of load transmission.

4. In a side bearing, in combination with a casing, provided with longitudinally extending supporting rails, and a plurality of closely spaced antifriction elements each provided with trunnions adapted for supporting engagement with said rails, said trunnions being spaced above the centers of gravity of said antifriction elements, and the cross-section of each antifriction element taken at right angles to its axis of oscillation being greater in one direction than in a direction at right angles thereto.

5. In a side-bearing, in combination with a casing, provided with longitudinally extending supporting rails, and a plurality of closely spaced flatsided antifriction elements supported pendulum-wise from said rails.

6. In a side-bearing, in combination with a casing, provided with longitudinally extending supporting rails, and a plurality of closely spaced flat-sided antii'riction elements each provided with trunnions adapted for supporting engagement with said rails, said trunnions being spaced above the cen ters of gravity of said antifriction elements.

7. In a side-bearing, in combination with a casing, provided with longitudinally extending supporting rails, said rails having a plurality of longitudinally spaced notches, and a plurality of closely spaced, Hat-sided antifriction elements having trunnions adapted to support said antifriction elements pendulum-wise in said notches.

8. In a side-bearing, a casing, provided with longitudinally extending supporting rails, a plurality of closely spaced flat-side antii'riction elements each provided with trunnions adapted for supporting engagement with said rails, said trunnions being spaced above the centers of gravity of said antifriction elements, and said rails and trunnions being formed to provide interacting parts adapted to direct said antifriction elements in a return to predetermined positions in said casing when released from transmitting load.

9. In a side-bearing, in combination with a casing, provided with longitudinally eX- tending supporting rails, said rails having a plurality of longitudinally spaced notches, a plurality of closely spaced, flat-sided anti iiriction elements having trunnions adapted to support said antifriction elements pendulum-wise in said notches, and said trunnions and notches being correlated inform to direct said antifriction elements in a re- Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

turn to predetermined positions in said casing when released from transmitting load.

10. In a side-bearing, in combination with a casing, said casing having side-walls provided with longitudinally extending shoulders constituting rails, said rails having a plurality of longitudinally spaced V -shaped notches, a plurality of closely spaced, fiatsided antiiriction elements provided with trunnions, said trunnions having wedgeshaped bearing surfaces adapted for engagement within the notches in said rails.

11. In a side-bearing, in combination with a casing having side andend walls, said side walls being provided with longitudinally extending shoulders constituting rails, said rails having a plurality of longitudinally spaced, V-shaped notches, a' plurality of closely spaced, flat sided, antifriction elements each having trunnions located above its center of gravity with their common longitudinal axis in the median plane of said antifriction element, said trunnions having wedge-shaped bearing surfaces adapted for engagement in said V-saaped notches and said casing having end walls outwardly inclined from the space in which said antifric tion elements are located.

In testimony, that I, claim the foregoing as my invention 1 aiilx my signature in the presence of two witnesses, this 18th day of December A. I). 1912.

EDWIN S. WOODS Witnesses:

GEORGE R. VJILKINs, KARL W. DOLL.

Washington, D. C. 

